


Every Hello Ends With a Goodbye (Happy Ending)

by honeyed_eyes



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: #JohnJaeWeek2021, #JohnJaeWeek2021 Day 6: Romeo & Romeo, (at first but then with permission), (it's complicated), ...but not quite; more like Strangers to Lovers to (?), Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Alternate Universe - Romeo and Juliet Fusion, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Body Worship, But at the same time..., Cheating, Cigarettes, Closeted Character, Denial of Feelings, Doyoung Ten & Kun are only mentioned, Drunk Sex, Established Side!Dotae, Explicit Sexual Content, Flirting, Fully Based on Eight Different Songs, Fully Based on a Korean Movie, Heavy Angst, Homophobia, I'm Sorry Suh Youngho | Johnny, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, It's VERY complicated, Jaehyun is Engaged in an Arranged Marriage, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun-centric, Kissing, Love at First Sight, M/M, Making Love, Making Out, Men Crying, Mentioned Side!Kunten, Nicknames, One Night Stand, Regrets, Romance, Rough Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Semi-Toxic Behavior, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Smut, Songfic, Strangers to Lovers, Suh Youngho | Johnny is Whipped, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, Very Loosely Based on Romeo & Juliet, dubcon elements, light internalized homophobia, longfic, so is Jaehyun but... (?), the title contradicts itself for a reason
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:22:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29393334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeyed_eyes/pseuds/honeyed_eyes
Summary: “What’s your name?” Johnny asks first, but he can tell that the other man’s guard is still up.With the question, Jaehyun is just now realizing that they haven’t even exchanged names yet.“I’m just a boy,” he replies shyly, a little bashfully; he means to be confident in it, but as soon as it leaves his mouth he knows it sounds silly, childish. He's 25 years old calling himself a boy... it has his ears and cheeks heating up, but he makes direct eye contact to stand by his choice of not sharing his actual name.Johnny sees the other’s eyes; they stare back meaningfully at him, and it’s how Johnny knows the other is not going to reveal his name to him. Johnny is going to have to be okay with that if he wants to keep the other's company longer, so he accepts it.“Yours?" the other asks, and Johnny smiles.“I’m just a man.”OrJaehyun is engaged in an arranged marriage, but meets a stranger that will in only one night show him what it truly means to love, and be loved.OrJohnny gets a second chance, but learns that a second chance is not always a guarantee.
Relationships: JohnJae, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Original Female Character(s), Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Past Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny - Relationship
Comments: 9
Kudos: 15
Collections: JohnJae Fan Week 2021





	Every Hello Ends With a Goodbye (Happy Ending)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Again Everybody!
> 
> I'm really excited to finally be able to post this fic I've been working on for #JohnJaeWeek2021! This fic has been in my head for literal years, waiting to be written as it's based off one of my favorite Korean movies for over seven years now (not revealing which movie until the end of the fic). I had originally had it planned for possibly two different OTPs from completely different fandoms, but had never been compelled enough to write it for them until I saw the theme reveal of Romeo & Romeo for johnjae week. It was then I realized that johnjae is actually a perfect fit for this specific story line and plot, and adding in the Romeo & Juliet parallel to the already established story was a perfect fit. This is a very loose adaptation of that classic, for it's definitely very different even if it pulls a lot from what is such an ultimately tragic love story. I also wrote it with eight of my favorite songs all applying word for word to this fic, also making is a songfic (song reveals at the end of the fic as well). 
> 
> Initially, I was planning on this fic to be maybe 50k, but I am here to tell you, it is double that. That's right, this here is a 100k fic that I am here to feed johnjae nation; however, only chapter 1 is being posted today (it's BETAed) as I am still in the process of getting the whole thing fully BETAed. So while the whole fic is completely written, only chapter 1 is being uploaded today in accordance with today being Day 6 under the Romeo & Romeo theme for johnjae week. Initially, I wanted this to be a oneshot, but when I realized its size, I knew it couldn't be. However, I will say this: I believe this fic would best be read in one sitting, as the details that connect each chapter will get lost and forgotten if read separately at different times. I can tell you this from my experience of writing it, for everything connects so closely with each other that when I wrote different parts at different times I literally had to reread most of it over again to keep going. With that being said, I am here to encourage anybody whom reads this first chapter to, when the whole thing is uploaded all at once (sometime soon), reread it before reading the rest. Of course, you don't have to, but I am highly recommending it lol.
> 
> This particular fic really hurt my heart to write, but it was also so exhilarating to reimagine Johnny and Jaehyun in such a specific, intricate love story. I put a lot of effort into it, and I hope it translates into something that johnjae nation will enjoy. Happy Birthday to our dear Two Romeos, this one is for you both **♡**

“I’m sure you want to look as good as possible for your wedding shoot today,” the hairstylist says as she applies more pink dye to his hair, foil ready in her other hand once she’s done with that section. “I hope the bride will be pleased with your hair color change.”

She doesn’t wait for him to answer back and keeps applying, smile on her face. Jaehyun can only find it in himself to barely smile back at her comment, even if she’s not looking at him. He looks at her in the mirror and doesn’t say anything back, not because he’s rude, but simply because he feels the bride’s opinion irrelevant in this very moment. Just thinking about her doesn’t bring him joy anymore, and he wonders if it truly ever did. He doesn’t want the thought to linger, because he knows that if he thinks too hard about it, he’ll have to come to terms with why he’s getting married to her again. So he pushes the thoughts away and focuses on the coolness of the hair dye seeping into his scalp, a false balm before the storm to come that is his future.

He doesn’t know how much time has passed when he hears the crinkling of the foil being removed from his strands before she’s saying, “Time for the next step,” and leading him over to a shampooing sink. He sits down, getting comfortable with his head back in the sink so she can wash the dye out. For a moment, Jaehyun hopes that she’s not gonna try to strike up another conversation with him, but he knows she is itching to know more. He can feel it in the way she keeps looking at him with wonder in her eyes. 

As she turns on the water and it rushes through his hair, he relaxes his whole body for the coming process. He’s thinking about nothing in particular, just giving himself a moment of quiet in the mess that has become of his life. The water turns off and she’s then massaging shampoo into his scalp as the excess dye comes out; he lets out a contented sigh at the feeling, corner of his lips upturning. He remembers the last time he had another person running their hand through his hair, the memory fleeting. He’s always liked the feeling, but it doesn’t happen much these days. If he’s being honest, it doesn’t happen at all. She must take his seemingly content change of mood as a sign that he’s ready to talk, for the next words she says are asking of him to tell a story, one that he’s not ready and not so willing to tell.

“She’s such a lucky girl! How did you both meet?”

Jaehyun feels every possible emotion at once, but the negative ones push through the very few happy ones, burning him all over again. It has his muscles everywhere slightly tensing up as he pushes away the memories. She stops rubbing for a moment and watches the look that comes across his face, small wrinkles appearing between his eyebrows. He takes a deep breath and she continues, not expecting a response no thanks to that reaction, and massages his scalp just a tad harder. The action instead brings back that fleeting memory he had just moments ago, of a strong but gentle hand running through his fringe. It’s a much better memory than of what he was asked, and it brings a full smile to his face. So he decides to answer, even if it’s not about the person in question. 

“We met in an elevator, funny enough,” he slightly laughs, allowing himself to be brought back to that day, that one single day that could have, or maybe has, changed everything. He hasn’t told anyone, for very good reason, and he knows it’s about to be the hardest story he’ll ever tell.

As he starts to recount the tale of how it all went down, with every memory of it suddenly rushing back to him, he doesn’t realize that a single tear is already falling down his face.

━━━━━━━━━━･ ◈ ･━━━━━━━━━━

“I’m just going to pick up some things for my mother since I was able to finish my work early today,” Jaehyun says into his cell phone, slipping some of his belongings from his desk into his satchel, “I promise I’ll make it on time to the dinner.”

“Sure you will,” Eden says into the phone with a scoff, clearly not believing him. Jaehyun can feel her eyes rolling from the other end of the building floor as she continues, “I’ll see you at 6pm then; don’t let us down again Yoonoh.” Jaehyun winces at the use of his birth name, feeling like a belittled child at her condescending tone.

She abruptly hangs up, and Jaehyun lets out a long sigh. He was late to a company dinner for a merger one time and it seems like she’s never gonna let him live it down. He’s not even married to her yet and he’s already off to the wrong foot with her, in every way. 

Putting thoughts of the impending future of his arranged marriage aside, he skips putting on his suit jacket over his nice button up after taking a look out the window down onto the city of Seoul. It looks like a nice day, with great weather amidst the rainy week that they’ve had. So he loosens his tie and rolls up his sleeves to his elbows, hoping to feel some of the sunshine on his skin on his usual walk through the park next to the building. He forgets that the forecast still calls for rain that night, and leaves his umbrella he had used this morning sitting in a holder next to the window as he locks up his office.

Slinging his bag over his right shoulder, he walks to the elevator; the path passes Eden’s office on the way there and so he looks into her window only to see her on the phone again. He sends her an apologetic look when they make eye contact, but she only gives him the iciest glare before turning her back to him, saying something into her phone. Jaehyun feels numb to it, having been on the receiving end of that glare for three years now, so he keeps walking.

He makes it to the elevator, one of the receptionists that was waiting for it holding it open for him as they both get on it. “Good Afternoon, Mr. Jung,” the woman says to him, bowing but not making eye contact. The female employees at his company have avoided eye contact since the announcement of his engagement (afraid of the wrath of Eden, presumably), so he just nods his head back in response. She waits for him to tell her what floor button to press, and he says “B3” into the stifling silence. She clicks floor 29 for herself and the elevator voice says “Going down” before the doors close behind them. 

It’s a quick descent two floors down from floor 31, his father’s company’s floor where his whole future awaits him in the form of an inherited company and his soon to be wife. The receptionist gets off the elevator without another word to him, seemingly in a rush. Jaehyun wonders if it’s really that hard for some employees to be in an enclosed space with him, and the thought hurts a little. He goes to push the button to close the elevator doors when he hears a man’s voice call out “Hold the elevator please!”, so he does.

This is how he finds himself face to face with possibly the most attractive man he’s ever seen in his life, and they both still as they make eye contact. He’s taller than Jaehyun, with black hair swept up out of his forehead, a little coming down on his face, honey eyes and a set of full, plush lips. He sends Jaehyun a soft smile, and Jaehyun feels his heart plunge dangerously as he blinks up at him. 

“Thank you,” the man says to him as he steps into the elevator, and Jaehyun feels his ears turning red as he lets out a little breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He breaks eye contact to see a vintage looking polaroid camera hung around the man’s neck, before looking down at the box the man’s carrying; it seems to be overflowing with books, yet the books aren’t what catch his attention. The man’s shirt sleeves are pulled just over his elbows too, arm muscles on full display, veins straining through his slightly tanned skin as he carries it in. Jaehyun turns his head back down at the buttons to avoid getting caught blatantly oogling him, but he feels the other man’s eyes still on him, so he dares to take another look back at him as he asks, “Which floor?”

The guy says “B4” with a full smile, and Jaehyun isn’t ready for how bright the smile shines at him in the dim lights of the elevator. The elevator saying “Going down” snaps him back into reality as the doors close; he leans his back casually against the far elevator wall to feign nonchalance even though the man next to him has his pulse quickening by the second. Next thing he knows, he’s hearing a light grunt from the guy as some books fall out of the box onto the floor next to them. The sound has Jaehyun’s brain going haywire as the man goes to pick them up, and Jaehyun out of kindness goes to help him too.

He picks up the one that falls closest to him, its title simply saying “Chicago” on it in big font, a pretty picture of presumably the city adorning the cover. He goes to hand it to him and the man’s hand grazes his as he does; Jaehyun has never believed in the cliche of electricity going through someone’s skin when they touch another person but as it happens to him for the first time in his life, he finds his eyes fluttering shut for a moment just to imagine the guy taking him right now, inside this elevator. 

He swears in his quick fantasy, he can feel the way the man’s hands would feel pushing him fully against the wall, plush lips on his neck and him whispering the dirtiest words into his ear as he grinds against him. But that isn’t happening; instead the guy smiles lightly back at him again and puts the book back into his box, book title and cover still in Jaehyun’s line of vision as he stares at it, imagines of such dirty things so vividly clouding his mind in public for the first time as a fully closeted gay man. He doesn’t notice the way the guy is looking at him because he is too caught up in it.

“It’s a guide book about the city of Chicago,” the man is suddenly saying, and Jaehyun snaps out of it with a little jump. The guy next to him giggles, and because of the sound Jaehyun can’t find it in himself to think straight, to respond just yet. The guy lightly smiles once more as he continues, “You look curious about it.” Jaehyun looks up at him again, composure regained and simply says “I am”, a little bit of flirt in his voice; he didn’t plan for it to come out that way but he can’t help it, it’s the first time another man is truly making him feel some type of way. Sure, he’s seen attractive guys in his life, but this man… he’s different.

The man doesn’t respond, but their eyes don’t separate as the air in the elevator feels like it thickens, getting hotter as the elevator slowly descends. Jaehyun backs himself up comfortably against the wall again, and the other man does the same on the opposite one; there is a very wanton look in his eyes, and Jaehyun finds himself swallowing down a lump that’s formed in his throat. His stomach is screaming in nervousness, and he feels blood rushing everywhere, his body on edge even if there is five feet between them. It’s both not enough space and too much space at once separating him from the man of his dreams.

The guy looks away from Jaehyun and up at the floor counter, finally responding, “If nobody gets on this elevator until we reach B3, let me buy you a drink.” The man’s eyes find their way back to Jaehyun’s, whose jaw has now dropped slightly at the man’s proposition. His ears must definitely be red by now, he thinks as he watches the guy’s eyes flicker over to them before drawing all the way down his body. 

This is the first time another man is so blatantly checking him out and it’s giving Jaehyun too much confidence; out of nowhere, in this very moment, the tease in him is surfacing from the depths of his body. He finds himself crossing his arms playfully, smirk coming across his face as he says, “And why should I have a drink with you?” He lets his head drop playfully to the side, anticipating a flustered reaction from the man in return.

But the man isn’t flustered; he’s as confident as Jaehyun is too. “Do I really have to explain why?” The guy responds, tongue coming out to lick his bottom lip real quick with his eyes shifting down to Jaehyun’s lips. It’s now Jaehyun’s turn to lightly laugh, as he can’t believe this is actually happening.

“Are you hitting on me right now?” he asks the obvious question, and of course the other doesn’t miss a beat.

“So what if I am?” The guy says earnestly, “Is it working?” A smirk and then a bright smile comes his way, and Jaehyun is once again blindsided by the handsome stranger for what feels like the sixth time today in a span of less than two whole minutes. The elevator ride has never seemed so slow, but right now Jaehyun can’t find it in his mind to complain, wanting to be in this man’s orbit as long as he can be.

But when he turns his head to watch the floor counter count down the floors, he suddenly begins to get very nervous as nobody seems to be stopping the elevator to get on with them. He shouldn’t be flirting with another guy, yet another _person_ as he’s a fully engaged, soon to be married man, even if not by choice or want. In the middle of his thoughts, he feels the engagement ring on his finger grow heavier, wondering if the other man has even noticed that he’s wearing it, and if he has, if he even cares.

In the midst of his thoughts, the elevator slows down and rings to indicate it’s stopping. Jaehyun releases a sigh of relief as he sees the counter stop on floor 8. He’s too caught up in his own relief to notice the other man’s eyes drop a little in sadness. The doors open and a middle aged man walks in next to them. The elevator says “Going down” and before the door even begins closing, the guy that just came in leaves with hurried apology under his breath; he must have needed to go up instead. Jaehyun’s heart starts beating fast as the doors close in front of them, a smirk coming across the other guy’s face as he looks over at Jaehyun in his mini panic.

And the rush from before comes back as the floors count down, for even if Jaehyun didn’t agree to the man’s proposition, he didn’t disagree either and he doesn’t know what he’s gonna do if nobody gets on to save him from doing something he shouldn’t, no matter how much he wants to.

Then Mr. Handsome Stranger repositions the box in his hands to be holding it with only one arm, his other arm coming out towards Jaehyun to countdown the remaining number of floors on his fingers. The action gets Jaehyun’s pulse racing and so many thoughts fill his head, including the fact that although he’s a gay man and he’s very much so utterly attracted to the other guy, more than he’s ever been to any man before, he’s not out; he’s not openly gay, and _he can’t do this_.

So he surges his body forward hurriedly to press the floor one button, eyes closing in relief as he manages to take control of the predicament he’s found himself in. He doesn’t turn around to see how the other reacts, still silently wishes that he could have taken him up on his offer, wishes that he could turn around and take one more look at the man that has managed to make him feel things he’s never felt before ever in his 25 years of life on this planet. 

If he did, he would have saw the way the guy’s face sank fully, the way that such a sad smile came across his face as he looked at the back of Jaehyun’s head in somber defeat, and the way he longingly watched Jaehyun’s retreating figure half run out from the elevator onto floor one. 

Jaehyun feels like he can finally breathe again as he exits the confined space, hand coming up to clutch over his chest as he takes a moment to catch his breath. His body is acting like he was being suffocated even though he was far from it. He feels a tug on his heart, as if his body is showing him that it actually physically hurts to have to have gone through such an encounter and not go through with it the way he wanted. He brings his hand with his ring on it up in front of his face and dejectedly looks at it, wishing things were different. 

However, he doesn’t let himself dwell on it for too long (else he goes into the immensely sad state that he falls into every now and then when he thinks about his life); he doesn’t want to do that when he’s got his work for the day done early just so he could go on a mission to pick up some new materials for one of his favorite hobbies. So he sucks up his not socially accepted feelings (keeping them hidden, like he has almost every day since he was seventeen) and exits the building, taking a walk through the park next to it to get to where he knows his favorite driver with his company car is waiting for him.

“Hey Taeil,” he greets him as he slips into the back seat, and Taeil smiles at him through the rear view mirror. “Did you get the address of the new spot I want to check out? I sent you it earlier.”

“Yes Mr. Jung,” Taeil responds, and Jaehyun cringes at the forced formality. ‘Mr. Jung’ is his father, not him; he especially doesn’t like being called that by Taeil specifically, who is five years older than him and deserves the respect of being the only older brother figure Jaehyun has ever had in his life. Although they aren’t close like siblings are, he’d like to believe they’d be if it weren’t for the circumstance of Taeil working for his family.

He looks Taeil in the eyes through the rearview mirror softly to say something to him that he’s said many times before: “Please, just call me Jaehyun,” he pleads, sincerity laced in his voice as his eyes drop to look at the ring on his finger again. Taeil must hear the defeat in his voice or see it through the mirror, for he turns around and says, “Is everything okay Jaehyun?”

Jaehyun is shocked that he actually listens to him, calling him by his name, and his eyes widen as he looks back at Taeil. Wanting to hide his sadness and not have him worry, he sends him a smile. “Let’s get going, I have to rush a bit to meet with Eden for another company diner later.” Of course his words do nothing to answer his driver’s question; Taeil doesn’t look satisfied with Jaehyun’s answer and avoidance, so Jaehyun tries to answer it in the form of saying, “Everything is going to be fine.” As he voices it out and Taeil turns around to start the car up and begin to drive, he thinks that even he wouldn’t even believe his own words, a forced false sense of calm enveloping the atmosphere of the car.

As Taeil pulls onto the freeway going to the other side of the city, Jaehyun rolls down the window and puts one of his hands out to feel the cool breeze, thinking about the events that had just transpired in such a short amount of time. The breeze brings him some clarity as he watches his hand dance in the wind, hoping that the handsome stranger from the elevator won’t be the only thing he’s able to think about for the rest of the foreseeable future.

He has no clue if he’s ever even gonna see the man ever again, and knows that the odds probably aren’t in his favor of that actually happening. Most of him feels relieved at the thought, but the longing overtakes him in the form of a bright smile and a static, lingering touch of fingers as Jaehyun thinks about him, the fresh memory flashing across his eyelids as he closes his eyes.

━━━━━━━━━━･ ◈ ･━━━━━━━━━━

Johnny finds himself in an even sadder mood than he’d been in since he got up today as he drives his car along one of the few highways in Seoul, knowing his destination is going to do nothing to change his mood, but actually only worsen it. He can’t stop thinking about the guy from the elevator just minutes ago, how beautiful he was and how he felt so drawn to him more so than to anybody ever before. Popping a cigarette into his mouth, he pulls out his lighter from his pocket to light it and then takes a long drag, his body going through the motions while his mind goes through the new memory.

Being a romantic, Johnny believed in love at first sight, even if he didn’t believe it would happen to him. Yet, as the memories of a chiseled face, red ears, deep voice and charming dimples come to mind, he knows now that it’s in fact happened to him and for his poor soul, all too fast and much too quick. And then he lets out a bitter laugh, because fate must really have it out for him; how is the most perfect man gonna appear today of all days and then proceed to essentially turn him down? He exhales some smoke with a long sigh.

Johnny knows his overconfidence might have ruined it for him this time around, but he swears the other man had looked at him a certain way too, that the feeling was mutual. Johnny had only been at that building to pick up a box of his old belongings (mostly books) from his lawyer’s new office, but he would go back everyday to that building just to ride the elevator in hopes of seeing the man and trying his luck again. Except, he can’t do that; today is his last full day in the country, flight back home leaving tomorrow at noon. Longing fills his body more than the smoke does, and he holds it in for a moment longer than he normally does because his reality is that of the slow burn he feels when he does it. 

Twenty long minutes of silent self pity later, he pulls into one of the few parking lots to the surrounding area’s many shops, museums, and quaint little park. He pulls out his cell phone to send a text to Taeyong, asking him if he’s already here yet. Taeyong responds back right away, letting him know he has been for the past hour to gather up the last of his things. He remembers to grab the guidebook he just remembered he had (no thanks to such events in the elevator) to give to his friend before locking up his car. Before he goes, Johnny tells him that he just parked and that he’ll be there in five minutes, pockets his phone and begins the quick walk to the building that holds all his former hopes and dreams.

On his walk over, he takes a deep inhale of the fresh air, the familiar scent of the big lily pad pond in this park being one he’ll miss. It’s mixed with the scent of rainfall from earlier this morning and upon smelling it, Johnny realizes he still doesn’t own an umbrella; even with the abnormal amount of rain Seoul has been getting this past year, he’s never bought one. He laughs to himself, because it’s too late to be thinking about buying one now since by this time tomorrow he’ll be gone.

He looks up at the sky, hoping that he hasn’t just jinxed himself and the sky is literally about to pour down. Thankfully, the sky is actually clear and it’s turned his walk into a pleasant one. The sun warms him nicely, along his arms and face and it almost has him forgetting the awful circumstances he’s in. But just when he thinks life will give him a moment to forget, he finds himself at his destination, standing in front of the building he once owned; just seeing it is a punch in the gut, and has him recalling everything that’s brought him here today.

He remembers his days back at the University of Seoul, studying English Literature as well as the Korean Language, mastering it in hopes of making his parents proud. He remembers how his parents begged him to come home and find a job there when he graduated, but he chose to stay in Korea to pursue a relationship with another man he met along the way. He remembers them both getting hired as English as a Second Language elementary school teachers and how happy they were. He remembers being told he’s great with children, and that he should run his own private institution, and deciding to actually pursue it.

And then he remembers a slip up in his own judgment that consequently gets him outed by some female coworkers. He remembers how they both got fired by the school halfway through his transition into starting up his own place. He remembers the lengthy court battle with the school that he put so much time and effort into, only to end up losing. He remembers the long-overdue breakup with his boyfriend because of the loss, and how he left him to go back to his home country, not being able to handle the fallout. He remembers his name being dragged through the mud, making it impossible to even try to continue to start his own institution anymore because of the talk around his “reputation”.

So here he is, standing in front of the building he put all of the money he saved up in the time he worked for the school into, wishing things didn’t turn out this way. The building was, and still is perfect, for what he once wanted to do career wise with his life. Its interior is modern, concrete finish ready for a splash of color and a full window wall letting in so much natural light, also with a balcony attached that provides a full view of the surrounding quiet park and in the distance, a shopping center connected to it. It would have been a perfect, relaxed learning environment, Johnny laments, taking one last long hard look at it. In that moment, he wishes for a second chance, at both everything that’s happened to him but also nothing in particular.

He then remembers he has his favorite polaroid camera slung around his neck, and thinks about how he never took any pictures of the building, wanting to save film for taking pictures of it when it’s finished. Picking up the camera, he takes the only picture he’ll ever have of the place. It prints out and he takes a minute to shake it, holding it up once it fully develops. The picture is nothing special, he thinks bitterly, not like it could have been. Instead of lamenting further on it, he begins to make his way inside.

Going up the stairs and into the main sunroom of the building, he sees that Taeyong has already packed up the little bit of stuff that was actually still left in the building into two little cardboard boxes that are against the far wall. He goes to put the picture in the box with his stuff in it before looking around for Taeyong. “Taeyong!?” he calls out, wondering where the blonde man is. “In the restroom! Give me a minute!” Taeyong yells back, and Johnny finds himself going out to the patio and balcony that overlooks everything to take it all in for the last time. 

The distant sound of children playing in the park makes him think about his future; once he gets back he wants to start over, maybe further his education, find the love of his life, settle down and get married, live in a place that won’t look down on him simply for his sexual preference. It’s a lot to hope for, but he knows it’s actually possible back home.

Behind him, the sound of Taeyong tripping over one of the only two boxes in the whole room startles Johnny out of his for once pleasant thoughts, and he turns around to see Taeyong catch himself before hitting the ground saying, “I’m fine, I’m fine,”; he then makes his way over next to Johnny to join him in leaning over the balcony and looking out at the park.

“You’re not normally the clumsy one, that’s my job,” Johnny says, a smile coming across his face as he teases Taeyong, throwing an arm around his shoulder and laughing. Taeyong begins chuckling too, and Johnny uses his other hand to ruffle the blonde’s hair affectionately. Taeyong is one of the few people he’ll miss once he’s gone, and hugging him now is making him wish he could relive his college days with his old roommate here, the easy days when they would eat instant ramen together while studying and talk about their then crushes turned relationships, not knowing what the future had in store for them.

“So you’re gone for good tomorrow then?” Taeyong’s voice brings him out of his reverie, and Johnny sends him a sad smile as he lets go of him and goes back to leaning over the balcony, looking out again at the park. If he looks Taeyong in the eyes, he knows he’ll cry, so he doesn’t. 

“Yup,” he pops the P, trying not to sound too sad, “My flight leaves at noon.” 

Taeyong hums in response, having already known that. “I bet your mom is so excited to have you back,” Taeyong says, elbowing him in the side playfully, knowing just how much of a momma’s boy Johnny is and trying to point out the one positive in all this.

It works, and has Johnny grinning from ear to ear. “You know it! I can’t wait to have her cooking again,” he says, thinking about it and the deep dish pizza he’s gonna shove down his throat as soon as he lands.

“I’ve always wanted to come visit the states,” Taeyong says longingly, and it makes Johnny remember the guide book he has in his back pocket for him. He grabs it and holds it out in front of Taeyong. “Well, now you have reason to.”

Taeyong grabs it excitedly. “Chicago!” he reads out the title enthusiastically, opening up the book to a random page to begin reading it. “It’s in both English and Korean,” Johnny explains, remembering the reason he had it in the first place. “I had plans on using it to surprise Ten once.”

The mention of Johnny’s ex by his own doing stifles the conversation, both of them falling into silence. They hadn’t talked about Ten for a while now, since Ten left to go back to Thailand after everything fell through. Taeyong was friends with Ten before he was even Johnny’s roommate, and was the one that had introduced Johnny to him back in college; Johnny knew that they still talked, but had never asked about him since it all went down. Taeyong never brought him up either, to which Johnny was thankful.

“I’m glad you’ve moved on,” Taeyong is saying then, knowing that Johnny has since gotten over him. It’s been a year since the official break up, and while Johnny was very much hurt in the first few months, time proved to help him heal. That and the fact that Ten threw some very choice words at him before he left, to which Johnny took to heart and had him actually wanting to move on. Johnny hasn’t dated since he decided to go back home, wanting nothing to tie him down to Korea further. He’s had a couple of one night stands to blow off steam, but nothing serious; Taeyong knows this all too well as his roommate turned best friend here in Korea since the beginning of their college years.

“Do you want to know how he’s doing?” Taeyong is then asking, to which Johnny’s ears perk up a little in interest. Yes, he’s over Ten but it doesn’t make him any less curious as to how he’s doing. He still wishes him well, considering it all. “Sure,” he says, wondering if Ten has followed his dreams of becoming a dancer. Dreams that Johnny felt he selfishly took away from him when Ten was with him, Ten confirming that notion in their breakup. Despite all this, he’s not ready for what Taeyong’s about to say.

“He got married,” Taeyong starts to say, and Johnny can’t hold back the loud gasp he lets out. It’s literally only been a year since Ten left, and he got with someone else and got married in that small amount of time? For the first time in a while, Johnny feels that pinch of hurt over Ten all over again; him and Ten were together for four whole years, and every time he and Ten talked about their future together, Ten would be a little too silent. This fact slightly opened up a scabbed over wound in Johnny, one that he thought was already fully healed.

“What?” is all he can manage in response, not being able to make eye contact with Taeyong. Taeyong tenses up, but Johnny doesn’t see it as he’s trying his best to hold his composure by looking straight ahead. Taeyong notices that Johnny doesn’t seem fully mad, nor happy, nor super duper hurt at the news, just genuinely shocked (as he should be) so he continues.

“From what I know, Thailand legalized same-sex civil partnerships sometime within the last year. So Kun proposed to him; but since the technicality still isn’t considered ‘marriage’, they eloped in New Zealand instead and because they want to settle down in Hong Kong, they actually went to court to fight for the right to file their taxes jointly.”

This new information in effect changes Johnny’s whole demeanor; he feels pride that Ten is doing something so important to what they all believe in, and finding happiness in doing so. “Wow, that’s so amazing actually,” he says, turning to Taeyong with a genuine look of content on his face, “Can you wish him best of luck for me? Tell him that I’m genuinely happy for him and proud of what he’s doing.”

It’s then Taeyong’s turn to smile. “I will,” he says, voice full of relief. And just like that, Johnny bandages up his metaphorical wound and moves on, changing the subject then.

“Doyoung wasn’t at his office when I stopped by earlier, I really wanted to bid him goodbye,” he says dejectedly, truly sad at not being able to give him a proper goodbye, especially after all he’s done for Johnny. Johnny supposes he could still swing by quickly to his office tomorrow morning before his flight to say goodbye to him, but he doesn’t want to do that; He’s come up with a plan already for how he’s spending his last night and then morning in Korea: alone, to cry it out and get it all out of his system before he begins his new start back home. Taeyong knows that Johnny wants to be alone too, them agreeing to saying their goodbyes right now as they collect the last of their things from this building.

Taeyong smiles at the mention of his boyfriend. “You know how it is, he texted me this morning letting me know he got called in to do some pro bono work last minute as usual,” Taeyong says fondly, which has Johnny smiling too. “He asked me to apologize to you, but make sure you text him your goodbyes instead.”

Johnny nods, turning to look up at the small clouds forming in the sky. If there is any perfectly good reason Doyoung could have for missing his last chance to say goodbye to him, it’s that. Doyoung was still studying to become a full time attorney and took pro bono work to gain experience amidst his ongoing studies. He was always busy, but agreed to be Johnny’s lawyer even with his limited experience and knowledge of the law in accordance to what was enclosed in Johnny's case.

When the elementary school literally fired him for simply being a gay man, Johnny thought he had a case to begin with, and so did Doyoung. Although not yet well versed with all the knowledge he would need because he was still young and only halfway through his studies at the time, Doyoung fought hard for Johnny. And most importantly, he did it for free; when Johnny told Taeyong he wanted to sue, Taeyong immediately told Doyoung who offered his pro bono service so willingly, not only because Johnny was his friend but also because he would be able to fight for something he believed in too: against the discrimination and for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in Korea. 

Johnny didn’t have the money for a full fledged attorney anyway, having put all his savings into the very building he was standing in today. In the end, the courts ruled that because Johnny worked for a school in the private sector, they were free to discriminate in such a way; if Johnny worked in a government run school, things might have been drastically different in court. But of course, no such luck: life had decided long ago what Johnny’s fate would be here, and no matter how unfair and sad it's turned him and his life upside down, he’s accepted it and he’s moving on.

“Speaking of, Doyoung told me you wired some money into his bank account…” Taeyong’s voice trails as he says it, for he’s completely touched by the gesture. Johnny turns to look at him then, and sees some tears forming in Taeyong’s eyes. He feels his eyes start to betray him too so he turns away before responding, “It’s a thank you gift to you both, for always being there for me…”

“Johnny you really didn’t have to-“ Taeyong says, but Johnny is quick to cut him off. “Not that I had to, but I wanted to.” Even if Johnny wasn’t exactly in the best situation financially because of the aformentioned circumstances, he still wanted to do right by his friends who did right for him. Johnny clears the few tears that have fallen from his eyes with the back of his hand before turning back to Taeyong. 

“Now he has no excuses as to not go on that trip to Jeju together that you’ve always wanted to take.” And Taeyong laughs at that, because “You’re absolutely right!” and Johnny smiles, going in for a much needed hug. “We’ll miss you,” Taeyong says as they embrace, and Johnny squeezes him a little harder. “I’ll miss you guys more.” 

“Doubt it,” Taeyong mutters as he lets go of him, turning forward to look back out at the park once again. Johnny looks at him as Taeyong then suddenly looks down at his left hand, softly touching the promise ring Doyoung gave him on his ring finger; a twinge of nostalgia goes through Johnny at the memories of the two over these past years, of them finally getting together. 

“I hope you find your happiness too, John.”

Johnny smiles sadly, feeling the loneliness he’s been carrying on his back weighing him down, it not knowing how to let him respond. He then too eyes the ring on his best friend’s finger, before looking down at his own bare hand and whispering “me too.” 

He then turns back forward to look out at the park for what will be the last time. But this time, he sees something that has him letting out an audible gasp; Taeyong next to him looks at his face, confused, following Johnny’s line of vision to see why.

And in that moment, Johnny feels his heart flutter, a tingling sensation rushing throughout his veins as it did less than an hour before; he blinks to clear his vision, hands coming up to rub his eyes dramatically because he simply can’t believe what he’s seeing. For in the short distance in front of him on one of the many walkways in the park is the man from earlier, from the elevator. The same man that had him swearing on god that love at first sight is real, even if not meant for him because fate surely has held everything against him.

Yet here the same beautiful man is, stopping his slow walk to look down at a pamphlet of some sort in his hands; he looks down at it, confused, lips coming out into a pout and Johnny blinks rapidly to clear the hearts in his vision.

“How?” he whispers to himself, Taeyong not quite catching it. Taeyong looks back and forth between the man and Johnny, wondering if Johnny knows the guy and why Johnny looks like he just won the lottery. He sees a look on Johnny that he hasn’t seen on him in a while; there is a twinkle in his eye, and it’s like the guy out in the park has breathed life back into his best friend.

“Do I even want to know?” Taeyong asks, which snaps Johnny back to reality. He turns to Taeyong, suddenly in a rush, knowing that the man can be gone within seconds and he doesn’t want that to happen, not again. Not when fate is apparently giving him a second chance, the one he’s asked for.

Rushing, he turns to Taeyong, grabbing both his shoulders. “I’ll explain later, but I have to go,” he says hurriedly, “Take your time finishing up, I’ll text you tonight!” He releases Taeyong to run to the entrance of the room, holding the camera around his neck as he runs; he’s almost out the door but stops himself to take one more last goodbye look at his best friend. He knows Taeyong must be shocked and confused, but his best friend still sends him a smile, before adding in a wave. “Good luck!” is what Taeyong chooses to say, and Johnny smiles back, because he’s gonna need it.

As he rushes out the door, down the stairs and towards the particular pathway he saw the man on (thank god he knows this park like the back of his hand), he knows he’s gonna need all the luck he can get because has no plan of action; he didn’t have time to make one, and he doesn’t know what he’s even gonna say or do when he catches up to the man. Yet that doesn’t stop him from running towards the guy, adrenaline pumping through his veins and heart beating fast for more than one reason.

━━━━━━━━━━･ ◈ ･━━━━━━━━━━

Taeil pulls the car into a parking lot that looks connected to a park, and it has Jaehyun looking out the window, a little confused. “You sure this is the place?” he questions to Taeil, looking down at his phone to pull up the location. 

“Yes,” Taeil says, but not with the confidence Jaehyun was hoping to hear, “I think it’s a little bit of a walk through that park to get to it though; in the link you sent me, the page said it’s located in this park.” Jaehyun eyes the info on his phone screen only to confirm the same thing on the page as Taeil had said, the store’s website giving walking directions from each of the three parking lots surrounding the park.

“Do you know which parking lot we are in?” he asks Taeil, to which Taeil shakes his head no. “But I can find out? Better yet, I can drive us around the whole park and into whichever parking lot seems closest to the shop if you’d like?” Jaehyun looks down confusedly at the different maps on his screen, them all looking similar enough for him to decide that, “Nah, it’s okay; I’ll find my way from here.”

Taeil sends him a wary look in the rear view mirror, but nods. Jaehyun decides to leave his suit jacket, grabbing his bag and then gets out of the car, closing the door behind him. He goes to Taeil’s window, who rolls it down to ask, “Do you want me to wait here before I take you to your company dinner date later?” The reminder makes Jaehyun sigh, remembering that he’s never able to truly get away.

“It’s okay Taeil, go get yourself a coffee or something to eat; I don’t need to be there for another,” he looks down at his rolex, “three hours.” Jaehyun sends Taeil a smile, but the other still looks apprehensive; “Are you sure?” Taeil questions, and Jaehyun sends him a full smile then, putting his hand on his shoulder through the window to give him a light squeeze. “Yes, you deserve it.”

The look of thankfulness in his driver’s eyes speaks volumes as he just nods back, Jaehyun letting go of him so he can put the window up and pull out of the parking lot as Jaehyun watches on; the whole interaction leaves Jaehyun in a great mood, even as he turns toward the entrance of the park connected to the parking lot. “Now to figure out how to get there.”

Jaehyun walks to the entrance and as he gets closer, he sees a wooden pole with a holder that’s holding what looks to be like pamphlets inside. Once he reaches the holder, he sees it’s labeled “MAPS” and he sighs in relief, knowing these maps will tell him how to get to the shop from this specific parking lot. He pulls one out and opens it, suddenly feeling like he’s in Disneyland or something, the map looking and folding like those you see in theme parks.

He takes a moment to observe it, seeing that this is actually a really nice, fully developed park in this part of Seoul that he doesn’t frequent, briefly wondering how he’s never heard of this place before. The map shows him that there is an array of museums, shops and restaurants all surrounding a pond and river that finds its way all throughout the park, with many playgrounds and sitting spots overlooking the pond. There are even paths that cross over the rivers using bridges, and he starts getting excited at the prospect of a walk in this park that he’s never been to. Sure, he enjoys the short walks in the little park next to his company’s building every evening, but he really could use new surroundings with a long walk to clear his head.

He finds the location of the shop on the map and pulls out a pen from his bag to mark it with a star. After popping the pen back into his bag, he looks at the map again to visualize the route from the “you are here” point, then starts walking the path. As he enters, the smell of the pond overwhelms his senses, but he likes it, taking a deep breath of the new smell that mixes with the scent of rain from earlier that day. That’s when he realizes he forgot his umbrella at the office, but a quick look up at the sky shows no clouds in sight to worry about, and he takes a moment to absorb the sunshine as it hits his face, a smile blooming across it as he keeps walking.

In less than a minute he finds himself already walking along the water, its many cattails, reeds and lily pads along the bank where the path goes close to the water reaching out to him. He takes a moment to stop and touch one, for he’s never been to such a place with such a plant; the cattail sways lightly as he releases it, and Jaehyun feels at peace for once in his hectic and busy life.

Suddenly he hears quacking to his left, and he looks in that direction to see a white duck leading seven baby ducklings, walking onto another pathway that diverges from the one he’s on. But before he can even think about it, he finds himself slowly following behind them. He takes out his phone to record a short video of them, because they are just so darn _cute_. He follows behind for who knows how long, time losing him until the momma duck decides to finally hop into the water, baby ducklings each jumping in behind her. He coos at them, saying “bye bye~” as they swim away.

And that’s how twenty minutes later, he finds himself completely lost in this huge park. He takes a moment to look around for a landmark of some sort to give him an idea of where he’s at, only a couple of empty looking buildings with “for lease” signs on them being the only thing he sees besides the pond. He brings a hand up to his face, rubbing it and sighing because he let some cute ducks distract him to the point where he doesn’t know where he’s at. 

Looking down at the map, he comes to a complete stop as he attempts to try to trace his footsteps from where he started and place himself in order to keep walking towards the shop. After a full minute of looking down at it and the surrounding area confusedly, he’s just about to give up; instead he goes to pull out his phone from his bag to pull up google maps to see if it will give him walking directions, and in his focus to figure it out he doesn’t hear the footsteps coming up behind him. Even if he did, he wouldn’t have been able to prepare himself with who he was about to come face to face with once again.

“Lost?” a slightly familiar voice says to his left, but Jaehyun keeps eyes trained on his phone as the walking directions from his exact spot pop up. “Actually yeah,” he scrolls along the page, eyes reading what google maps is telling him. They still look a little confusing, so he decides to see if the person who’s asking him can help him out. “I just, got distracted by some-“ 

That’s when he finally looks up, almost dropping his phone. Beaming back at him is Mr. Handsome Stranger from the elevator earlier, and it takes everything in him not to gasp in pure shock. And Jaehyun’s body reacts before his mouth does, eyes bulging, heartbeat racing and then eyelids fluttering, a jolt of nervousness going through every point of his body. His mouth opens and closes, not knowing what to say in his state of shock, not believing that the man of his dreams is once again in his presence. 

Johnny sees that the other man doesn’t know what to say, clearly taken aback that he’s here in front of him again, so he speaks instead. “It’s been a while,” he jokes, trying to get the other man to respond back. “You haven’t changed a bit.” He smiles a little wider as he eyes Mr. Dimples, who still seems to be caught in a trance. “You said you got distracted by some…?”

The question finally snaps Jaehyun back into reality, as he finally stops staring like a fish outta water to answer. He looks back down at the map, and then over to the water, trying to hide his attraction all over again. “I got distracted by some… ducks.” and as he says it, he finds himself smiling at the guy and then laughing because it just sounds so silly, even if it’s the truth. But the other is laughing so loud next to him at his response, and Jaehyun stops his laugh entirely in order to hear the absolute sound of joy coming from the other; he didn’t think a laugh could sound so nice.

Johnny slows his laughing down when he hears the other stop, and looks back at him to see his ears have gone red again and his dimples are out, smile reaching his eyes. “Cute” he mutters under his breath, and the other guy eyes him suspiciously at the remark, cheeks going slightly pink. Realizing he’s said that out loud, he coughs and attempts to make a cover up. “The ducks, I meant…” The look the other guy sends him tells him he doesn’t believe him.

“Sure” Jaehyun says, sending him a smirk; he’s sure his ears are flaming red by now, and his cheeks will be next soon if he doesn’t stop blatantly flirting with the guy. So he looks back down at his map, confusion once again coming across his face as he remembers his mission. His lips unknowingly come out in a pout, and Jaehyun doesn’t know that the other man can’t seem to take his eyes away from them.

Johnny watches the man pouting cutely in front of him, remembering their exchange from earlier in the elevator and his inability to stop from staring at the other’s mouth. He knows that now’s his second chance, in the form of helping the other out. And Johnny would hate himself if he didn’t take it, regardless of the circumstances he’s under and if he’s leaving the country tomorrow. So, he decides to let himself forget it all for a moment, if it means he gets to keep talking to the other, to see where it goes. So he takes the map from the guy’s hand, looking down at it to see where he's trying to go.

“Ah, this is where you’re trying to go,” the man says as he takes the map from Jaehyun’s hand, eyeing the star on the map Jaehyun had made; Jaehyun then gives himself a moment to look up at him as the other’s eyes are finally off his face. Mr. Handsome Stranger’s profile is so nice, and Jaehyun can see some stubble growing along his lovely chin. Before he can keep going, the guy turns back to him with a slight look of mischief in his eyes. “I know where that is, should I help you out?” Jaehyun can only find it in himself to nod back.

Johnny wants to grab the man’s hand so badly to lead him but he doesn’t, remembering that the guy did turn him down earlier; he doesn’t want to scare him off again, so he knows he has to take it slow. So he shoves his hands in his pockets, sends the guy another smile before he begins walking in the direction of the shop, glancing over his shoulder to make sure the other is following. When he looks over, he sees the guy’s eyes trained on his backside and he can’t help the giggle that leaves his chest. The other seems to not follow him too closely, and Johnny wonders what’s going through his head at this very moment, hoping he hasn’t ruined his chances once again.

Jaehyun blushes madly for the nth time today at being caught checking out the other man’s ass as he begins to follow, but he’s glad the guy doesn’t say anything past another little giggle and keeps walking forward. Jaehyun finds himself keeping a small distance from the other, not too close but not too far as he follows him. He begins to wonder how the man ended up in the same park as him of all places, getting a tad bit wary of the possibility that he followed him here. But as Jaehyun mulls it over in his head as he follows, it seems the guy knows the park very well and he must work at one of the many places here or something, and that thought soothes the little bit of worry in his mind. He makes a mental note to ask him later after he’s done at the shop.

Johnny feels a bounce in his step, a glimmer of hope on the horizon behind him causing it to burst through the surface. He hasn’t felt this giddy since before he got fired, and he hopes the feeling will last through the rest of the day; Yet as he turns around fully to walk backwards, eyes on the other as he follows Johnny to the shop, he doesn’t know how this is going to pan out. The unknown is scary, but as his eyes meet the other’s as they cross a bridge over the main part of the pond, he thinks he sees the same glimmer of hope shining back in the other’s eyes too.

━━━━━━━━━━･ ◈ ･━━━━━━━━━━

After ten minutes of little smiles and stolen glances, Jaehyun has followed Mr. Handsome Stranger across three different paths over the pond to finally arrive back to society again. The park had been very quiet, not a soul seeming to be also walking through it as they were. Yet the man has led him into a busy shop area, with a playground connected to it and shops littered along one long fully connected building; There is a good amount of people milling around, shopping bags and drinks in hand, and children running across the playground. In the distance further is a big sign for a separate museum, but Jaehyun can’t see any people in that direction.

The man leads him a little further, finally stopping in front of the shop Jaehyun had been looking for. Jaehyun watches as the man looks up at the sign that says the name of the shop and then back down at Jaehyun, arms stretching out and his body bending over to bow as a show of saying they’ve made it. Jaehyun laughs, and says thanks before walking up to the door of the shop, not giving the other guy a chance to get a word in. When the other guy makes no move to follow him in, he feels relieved to be able to pick up his order in peace while also clearing his head a little. Yet Jaehyun feels the man is the persistent type, so he figures he’ll probably wait for Jaehyun outside. As he looks over his shoulder while he walks into the shop, the guy sends him a wink and Jaehyun rushes in before his body can melt into a puddle of goo on the floor. 

The shop is beautifully decorated with handmade pieces of all sorts of material: glass, beads, porcelain, ceramic, ribbons, silk, you name it. Jaehyun takes a quick look around, but when nothing in particular catches his eye he decides to just go to the front to pick up his custom order he made a couple weeks ago online. He chose in-store pick up in order to have a look at the other things in the shop, and he’s glad he did so because being in the shop is making him feel more connected to his little hobby he does in his spare time. He should do this more often, he thinks forlornly.

When he gets to the front counter, he rings the little bell there; almost instantly an older woman comes out from behind the curtain to the back room, cane in one hand walking slowly out to greet Jaehyun. “Welcome handsome!” she greets, and Jaehyun sends her a dimpled smile; the lady reminds him of his late grandma, and he takes a moment to think fondly back on her. “I don’t usually see handsome young guys in my shop; you lost?” Jaehyun laughs, because quite literally he was just lost but ironically he was lost trying to find this specific shop.

“Actually, I’m here to pick up an order I placed a couple of weeks ago,” Jaehyun says, and granny looks back at him pleasantly surprised. “Oh really?” she asks, and Jaehyun nods politely. “It should be under the name ‘Jung Jaehyun’” 

“Ah yes!” she says, hand coming up to hold a finger up in realization. “The pieces you ordered are very nice, I almost wanted to keep them for myself when they arrived.” She laughs and then turns around to grab a box on the counter behind her, bringing it in front of Jaehyun. “I’m just gonna have to order some for myself,” she says before slowly opening the box up.

Jaehyun looks down into it to see the colorful array of Chinese knotting cords he ordered, waiting to be knotted into something beautiful. His hands twitch at the want to touch them, and granny must see it because she’s then saying, “You can touch them you know, they are yours after all.” So he softly smiles as he grabs a golden one, the soft silky touch being an all too familiar one. 

“Did you order these for a girlfriend? As a crafting gift maybe?” The granny is then asking him, her curiosity getting the best of her, but Jaehyun doesn’t mind. “They are for me actually,” he says, taking his eyes off the cord to look back at her, “my mother really loves Chinese knotting, and I used to watch her as a child make such pretty designs and hang them around the house.” He closes his eyes then, recalling some of the memories. “And then one day, I decided to ask her to teach me so I could make them too.”

“That’s wonderful!” the granny exclaims, happy to hear such a story. “Do you have any pictures of ones you’ve made? I’d love to see them!” she’s asking, and Jaehyun is thankful that he carries some around with him in his bag, even has a tiny one dangling from his cell phone. He goes to pull them out, the granny picking each one up one by one. He’s never had his work looked at by anyone other than his mother before, so he feels a little nervous as the granny scrutinizes each one. Thankfully, she seems to only have nice things to say.

“These are so pretty! All of them…” she trails off, gushing under her breath while looking at Jaehyun, impressed. “If you ever want to sell anything you make, I’d be glad to display them here in my shop!” The gesture makes Jaehyun feel so warm and welcomed, but he has to decline. “Thank you so much, but it’s just a hobby; I only make them slowly from time to time for myself and my mother. Speaking of…” he suddenly remembers that he ordered something else too, gently lifting the cords in the box to look for it.

Under the deep royal blue cords he finds it, and takes it out of the box, pulling the plastic wrap around it off. “This little piece, it has my name on it; I ordered it specifically to tie to the end of a cord bracelet I’m making as a gift to my mother for her upcoming birthday.” He holds up the small piece of leather, his name in hangul carved out of it, proud of his idea. “That’s a lovely idea dear,” granny says, touched, “I’m sure she’ll love it.”

The granny then goes to grab the last piece she hasn’t looked at yet, and Jaehyun feels most nervous about her scrutinization of this one specifically. “And what’s this?” she asks, looking at it like it’s a brand new toy. “This is a knot I’ve never seen before.”

Jaehyun expected this sort of answer. “My mom and I tried creating new knot patterns somewhere along the way, and this is my take on a butterfly knot; it’s a male butterfly.” She brings it closer to her face, as if to try to figure out the pattern Jaehyun used to get it to look so unique. Jaehyun holds his breath in anticipation.

“It’s quite different than the traditional butterfly knot, but I like it,” she finally says, and Jaehyun releases his breath in relief. “It matches you well.”

Jaehyun looks down at it, eyes settling softly on his little creation he’s so proud of. He thinks about its meaning to him, deciding to voice it out. “Butterfly knots symbolize change,” movement from outside the shop window draws his eyes to look out mid sentence, as he sees Mr. Handsome Stranger playing hopscotch with a couple of children just right outside the shop owner’s door, “and it’s also the prettiest knot of them all.”

He gets distracted watching the man, who seems to be such a natural with children, and Jaehyun begins to feel something akin to yearning forming in the recesses of his mind. He likes children, but hasn’t started thinking about having a family yet as he’s about to reach the pinnacle of his career at his father’s company, taking over as soon as the merger between his and Eden’s company is complete. That and the fact that he doesn’t really want to have children with Eden, even though that is what his future calls for. As he looks at the man, his heart reminds him once again of how he wants something so, so different than the future that’s already been laid out for him. How it will always be nothing but an unattainable dream. 

His phone vibrating in his bag brings him out of his thoughts, and of course it’s Eden nagging him to give her a call as soon as possible. He puts his phone down and brings his attention back to the granny, who is still looking so deeply at his butterfly cord, still looking at the details of such an intricate knot. “Do I have a balance remaining for the order?” he asks politely, and the granny puts it down. “No you’ve already paid in full,” she says, eye smile on display.

He thanks her, putting his things and the new box of cords into his bag carefully. “When I need more cords, I’ll place an order and come back to visit you, to show you what else I’ve made.” Granny is so happy to hear it, smile so big, clearly fond of Jaehyun already even though they’ve just met. “That would be great dear,” she says, printing out his receipt and handing it to him. “Make sure you bring your mother with you next time too, I’d love to see the bracelet you make for her.”

“Definitely,” he says, before remembering the text he just got from Eden, and how he needs to call her. He doesn’t want to make the call right in front of granny, nor outside where Mr. Handsome Stranger can hear everything, so before he leaves he asks, “Do you have a restroom I can use?” She points towards the back of her shop, and he makes his way over there, pressing the call button just as he closes the door behind him. She answers right away after the first ring.

“Everything okay?” is the first thing he asks, skipping over saying hi or hello.

“Wow, don’t sound too excited to talk to me Jaehyun,” she responds sarcastically, and Jaehyun can feel her eyes rolling again from across town. “Of course everything is okay.”

“Then why did you need to speak with me?” Jaehyun asks, a little bit annoyed at this point. He hopes she can’t hear that annoyance in his voice because the last thing he needs is her getting mad at him before the dinner later. 

“Did you already pick up that thing you needed for your mother or whatever it was?” she asks, voice bored with no indication of actually caring.

“Why?” Jaehyun asks, not liking her much too dismissive tone. “Do you need me for something before dinner?”

“Well, I was thinking we could meet a little earlier beforehand to go over some things?” she answers, it sounding like a question.

“Some things?” It’s Jaehyun’s turn to roll his eyes. “Like what?”

“Oh you know…” she draws out, not finishing the sentence. Jaehyun waits for her to finish the thought but she doesn’t.

“Eden, we’ve gone over everything already; besides, they are more interested in your side of the company deal as I’ve met with them for dinners alone before.” Jaehyun doesn’t want to snap at her, but his words do come out with a bit of a bite. She takes a good moment to respond.

“Fine, you’re right,” she says dejectedly, and Jaehyun feels a little bit guilty for being even a tad bit mean. “I just, you know, I’m trying to spend as much time with you as I can; I know this is an arranged marriage but, I want to try to make the best of it, to try to not make it seem so forced in front of clients when we do these things.”

Jaehyun looks at himself in the mirror, not believing he’s about to say this but, “No, you’re right,” he says into the phone, his body slumping forward a little in defeat. That seems to get her mood up, for she’s then asking, “Then you’ll meet me a little bit earlier?”

“I’ll try,” Jaehyun says, not sure what’s about to happen once he leaves the shop. He doesn’t want to promise her anything (besides his whole hand in marriage, even though that wasn’t really his promise to make), and he’s been avoiding making such promises since they met, not wanting to get her hopes up. He felt that their arranged marriage was strictly business but he knew that to the world he needed to convince them of the opposite in order to hide the real him, to keep it from ever coming out. It was the only key he still needed to acquire for his success, the most important thing to him, to his life. To making his parents proud of him.

He knows that by saying he’ll try will put her in the best mood for later, and it puts him somewhat at ease. “Okay, I’ll either call or text you closer to the time then,” she replies, smile coming through her voice, “Talk to you later Yoonoh.” She then hangs up.

Jaehyun pockets his phone, again conceding to what life’s throwing at him in the form of appeasing a woman that he doesn’t want to marry. “At least you didn’t piss her off,” He says to himself in the mirror, washing his hands and attempting to fix his hair a bit before he exits the shop. He then remembers the fact that the man of his dreams is waiting outside for him, and he does a good once over of himself in the mirror before exiting the restroom. 

He’s hoping to blow off some steam with the company of the man, maybe talk a little, grab a drink or coffee, flirt a little more, he doesn’t know. It’s the unknown that excites him though, for he hasn’t had a chance to talk with another guy like this since back in college, the few times he let himself be himself before he entered as the heir to his father’s company upon graduation. Whatever is about to happen with the guy, he’s looking forward to it.

He exits the restroom and waves back at Granny before opening the door to leave. Much to his surprise and very much to his dismay, he exits the shop to an empty storefront, the man not in front waiting for him like Jaehyun thought he’d be. He looks around in every direction, double checking and seeing if the guy is hiding from him maybe, but Mr. Handsome Stranger is nowhere in sight. His lips again unknowingly come out into a sad pout.

Jaehyun was sure the man was gonna be waiting for him; now the sad feeling of rejection starts to creep up upon him. The guy had been hitting on him, and Jaehyun was so sure he’d still try to take him out for a drink after he was done, but he was now nowhere to be found. Maybe something pressing came up, he tries to tell himself, to mend over the dejection he feels bubbling inside him. 

He looks down at the hopscotch board drawn in chalk, remembering the way the man was playing with some children on it only minutes ago, the way it made him long for something more than he could ever have. Jaehyun hops across two of the squares sadly, and then walks away to explore the other shops and areas more in an attempt to fix his now sullen mood, loneliness of it all on his mind. Really, he’s hoping to run across the man again, and it’s that hope that helps him hold his head high as he continues on with his day.

━━━━━━━━━━･ ◈ ･━━━━━━━━━━

Jaehyun finds himself drawn to the huge book museum slash library that’s a little bit of a walk down the way from the shop. He enters it, and much to his expectancy it’s completely silent, even with the good amount of people that are walking along the old book displays and sitting in the various comfy looking chairs, reading books and such. He pulls his phone out of his pocket to silence it, just in case, and then makes his way to look at the old books in glass display cases.

The books are old and worn, some of the info cards revealing that they’re first edition copies; it explains why they are in glass cases, but Jaehyun wants nothing more than to touch them, to feel the history at his fingertips. He loves the look and feel of vintage things, thinking about the items he has displayed in his office that he’s collected over the years. He then remembers the vintage looking polaroid camera around Mr. Handsome Stranger’s neck earlier, hoping to find one like it for his collection. Sighing, he tries to tell himself to stop thinking about the guy, to get over it; but no matter how much he tells himself that, he knows that’s not gonna happen anytime soon.

After he’s done looking into all of the display cases, he makes his way up the long ramp they have going up to the second level, to the library section of the place. Bookshelves of new buyable books line the ramp, and he takes a quick look at everything as he passes by. But then he finds himself stopping in front of the travel section, eyes wandering the many spines of books about destinations all around the world. He thinks about his want to travel the world more, knowing that once he takes over for his father he’ll be taking a lot more business trips abroad. If there is one thing he has to look forward to in the future, it’s fulfilling that dream.

As he looks through all the different books, his eyes land on a book about Chicago, and he’s reminded once again of the elevator instance earlier in the day, Mr. Handsome Stranger never having left his mind since. He instantly finds himself reaching for it, pulling it out and running his fingers across the title. It’s different from the one the man had dropped, and Jaehyun finds himself opening it up to a random page. The spine of the book resists a little, like this copy has never been opened, and Jaehyun is determined to fix that, to take a good look at the book and wear it down a bit since he now has some time to do whatever he so pleases.

On the page he’s opened is a picture of the skyline that takes up the whole page, the very few words of “The Windy City” being the only ones atop the picture. He turns the page, and on it is a snippet about The Bean, a wildly famous piece of artwork that Chicago is very well known for. Jaehyun’s heard about it and seen pictures before, he thinks as he starts to read the paragraph in the book about it. That’s then when he realizes the book is actually in english, and it has him reminiscing on his four years spent in the states as a child. His parents had sent him there to learn English, and he was so young when he did it that he wishes now that he could go back, for he can’t remember much of it now, even if it’s shaped the bilingual ability he has today.

Jaehyun allows himself to get absorbed in the book, turning a couple more pages as he finishes reading them. He finds himself hoping to one day be able to visit the city, to go up to the top of the Willis Tower to the skydeck like the last page he just read had described. To try the infamous Chicago deep dish pizza, which looks much too appetizing in the picture provided in the book; Jaehyun has always liked pizza, and if there is one thing that he can remember about his time spent in the states, it’s that pizza over there is damn good. And of course Jaehyun is so absorbed into reading the book that he again doesn’t hear the person approaching him coming down the ramp from the top floor.

Johnny had noticed the other man when he began walking down the ramp, stopping in his tracks to watch the other pick up a book from one of the many shelves. He had found his way to the top floor of the library when he earlier suddenly remembered the kind librarian that so many times helped him find the perfect books to check out to take to his students. Johnny had realized that the other man would probably take a little while in the shop, so he figured he could run down real quick to say his thanks and goodbyes to her while waiting for him. What he wasn’t expecting was the time to get away from him while doing so, for apparently he took long enough to the point where Mr. Dimples here had wandered off, thinking he left him. Johnny would never, and he’s not gonna let it happen again.

He approaches the man silently then, taking some moments to just observe him before he ultimately gets noticed staring. He likes the way the man looks so fully into the book he’s reading, looking like he’s finally getting some much needed peace and quiet. He still has his tie loosened from around his neck like it was earlier back in the elevator, making Johnny remember the not so innocent thoughts he had whilst in that elevator that led him to being oh so bold and essentially asking the man out. 

He then goes to drag his eyes down the guy’s body once again when he notices the title of the book he’s picked up to read. It’s another book on Chicago, and it has Johnny smiling once again; the guy really was curious about it like he said in the elevator, and Johnny is gonna be the one to tell him about his hometown… if the man will allow him his time. He remembers again that the man still did reject him, and that he’s gotta take it slow still. Johnny approaches him slowly, hoping not to startle him with what he’s about to say.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he starts, but is quickly cut off when the other jumps in shock, gasping and then cutting his finger on a page of the book he’s now just dropped. Johnny instantly feels bad as he watches the man look at his bleeding finger before putting it in his mouth to suck the blood off his wound, coming closer and asking “Are you okay!?” The guy turns in on himself as he looks up at Johnny, shocked once again by his presence he presumes. Johnny realizes quickly that the man probably needs a bandaid now no thanks to him, and tells him to “Wait here” while he runs to the front desk, hoping they have one.

Jaehyun listens, but finds himself again staring wide eyes back at the man as he runs off to get something. Just when he had really thought the other guy ditched him, he shows up like the handsome mysterious stranger he is that has Jaehyun acting like a prepubescent boy, not knowing how to handle himself. He pulls his finger from his mouth, the cut on his finger stinging as it hits the air and lets out a little more blood. Hearing the other man come running back, Jaehyun picks up the book off the floor and puts it back in its place before looking up to see him closer than he’s been before. “Give me your hand” he says, and Jaehyun is once again rendered speechless, only able to just stare back at him, unable to move because the other man is just so close. 

When the other man doesn’t respond, Johnny decides to gently grab the other man’s left hand, and begins to wipe down a disinfectant wipe along the spot where he believes the other man cut his finger. Johnny again feels that same electric sensation going through his body as when their hands touched in the elevator, but manages to ignore it in favor of trying to bandage the wound he’s caused. 

As Mr. Handsome Stranger begins to wipe his finger, Jaehyun finally finds his voice again. “Wait a minute,” he says, amusement filling his voice because “It’s not that hand…” A giggle finds its way through as he says it, and Jaehyun finds his eyes meeting the other’s as a confused look comes onto the man’s face. “What?” the man responds, and Jaehyun lifts his right hand to replace his left one in the other man’s soft hands, causing both of them to look back down at their hands again. “Oh,” the other man sounds slightly embarrassed, but begins to wipe the little bit of blood that had begun to gather on the cut on the correct finger. 

“You should have told me sooner,” Johnny manages out as he wraps the bandage around the other’s impossibly lovely fingers. He feels only a little embarrassed about his rush to clean the wrong finger, but can’t find it in himself to care too much if it means it gets Mr. Dimples to let out such cute giggles. He’s done fixing the wound sooner than he’d like to be, and finds himself not wanting to let the other man’s hand go. Still holding it, he looks back at his face again and sees the other man smirking at him, clearly amused.

“You can let go now,” Jaehyun says, and the other man does so after giving a little rub over the top of the wound he just fixed up. Jaehyun feels his heart flipping in his chest all over again, and he doesn’t know if he’s gonna be able to take being in the other man’s presence for the foreseeable future. Jaehyun tells himself to suck it up, no matter what the rational part of his brain is screaming at him to do; he's gonna listen to his heart instead for once.

The other man doesn’t give Jaehyun any choice in deciding what they are gonna do now, for he’s then turning around to go back up the ramp to the second floor, where he had come from presumably before he scared the living shit out of him. Jaehyun doesn’t follow right away, and the man turns back around after a couple of steps up to look over his shoulder to ask, “You coming?” 

“Of course,” Jaehyun replies back, walking ahead of Mr. Handsome Stranger to lead the way instead, the rush of the unknown already taking the reins. It’s now his turn to have a bounce in his step, excited again for whatever is about to unfold.

━━━━━━━━━━･ ◈ ･━━━━━━━━━━

Johnny finds himself following Mr. Dimples to a very much untouched corner of the upper library level, a part of the floor that he himself never ventured into in all his time of coming to this library over the years in his time in Seoul. Johnny doesn’t allow himself to get too close, for he’s noticed that the other gets a bit nervous when he does that, and the last thing he wants to do is scare him off once again. So when the other doesn’t say anything and instead grabs for a random book off a random shelf, Johnny finds himself in the same aisle, but on the other end a good seven feet between them, doing the same thing. No one else is around, and Johnny hopes the other will speak to him first, to take the initiative instead.

“So, do you work here?” Jaehyun asks, body turned half away from the other man as he pretends to feign interest in a random book. He doesn’t make a move to look towards the other again, not yet when every time he does he can’t seem to control himself properly. So he’ll hold back from looking at him, just for a little longer at least, he thinks. 

Johnny doesn’t answer right away, knowing the true answer to that question really isn’t a simple one. He mulls over it for a couple of seconds before coming up with an answer that isn’t a lie, but isn’t quite the whole truth either. “I did… until yesterday. I was just going to pick up some stuff when I came across you in the park.” His answer will do, for now at least. “What about you?”

Jaehyun chooses not to answer. He could just say a simple “No”, but he knows that ultimately it will lead to more questions that frankly, he doesn’t want to answer. He expects his silence to stifle the atmosphere a little bit, but then Mr. Handsome Stranger is answering his silence in a way he wasn’t expecting. 

“It’s okay, you don’t have to answer that,” Johnny responds in a respectful way, sensing the question might be pushing a little in the wrong direction. So he decides to take a different approach: “What are you doing today?”

Now this is a question Jaehyun can have fun with, he thinks as he quickly glances at the other man before beginning to walk slowly into another different isle. He has plans later of course, but he’d rather not think about them again and with that not have to explain the complexity of them, so he answers with a playful question instead as he continues to walk on. “Why do you ask?”

Johnny stops in his tracks, not having expected the other to answer his question with another one. Did he not have plans? Was he also winging it? Did he want to know what Johnny’s plans were first before deciding what he was going to do? So many questions, all of which he wasn’t going to ask. Instead, he gets straight to the point: “Let’s play.”

It’s a strange request. Jaehyun’s not sure he knows what the other man means, but he wants to find out. 

“And why should I play with you?” As Jaehyun says it, he finds himself arms crossed but turning to look at the other.

It’s Johnny’s turn to lift a random book, but he puts it back down when he sees Mr. Dimples is again looking at him, this time eyes full of wonder. He walks slowly closer to him, and this time the other man doesn’t bat an eyelash. “Well, to be honest,” Johnny puts his hands in his pockets, “You look absolutely bored.” The slight quirk in the other’s lips tells Johnny he’s right, so he keeps going. “Also, I think you’ll find yourself happy to have me.”

Jaehyun is the one this time to be bold, taking a step closer to the man. He sees the other’s lips part slightly as he does it, “Are you always this confident?” he asks, mind bouncing back between what happened in the elevator earlier and what’s transpiring between the two right now. He doesn’t expect the sad look that instead comes across the other’s face as his smile drops.

Johnny finds himself looking away, the question somewhat hitting a sore spot, even if he knows the other man didn’t mean it to. Johnny considers his overconfidence to have led him into every single dilemma he’s found himself in to this day, ending in the finality of him leaving the country in order to continue on. He doesn’t want to lie to the other at all, for he has nothing to lose at this point… besides the other’s company in this very moment. But Johnny considers himself a morally good person, that honesty is the best policy. So, he decides to tell him the truth.

“I am, but it always seems to get me into trouble.”

The answer bleeds with a sincerity that Jaehyun wasn’t anticipating, of a loneliness in the other man that he’s trying to overcome. The answer implies so much, and it has a curiosity blooming in him, and he finds himself wanting to know why; Jaehyun wants to figure him out, and hopes that maybe soon he does. He looks down at his bandaged up finger and back up at the other, thinking the guy will continue, but he doesn’t. So, to give him that confidence back, Jaehyun will egg him on.

“What if I say no?” he says with a lick of teasing, turning to go back down the ramp and out of the store, in much need of some fresh air. He knows the man will follow him, no doubt about it in his mind.

Another question instead of an answer is exactly what Johnny had anticipated this time from the other as he watches Mr. Dimples turn to leave. The man walks slower than usual though, and Johnny knows he’s expecting him to follow. And of course he does, not one to disappoint. 

“That’s okay, too” Johnny says, but he just has a feeling the other won’t say no. He just does.

Jaehyun leads the way for them both out of the library, but the other man steps ahead to hold the door open for him on the way out. The guy might be overconfident, but he has manners, Jaehyun will give him that. He has manners, is respectful, is helpful, has a smile that outshines the sun, the body of a greek god, and a great sense of humor; Jaehyun is sure the list goes on and on, and will get longer the more they hang out. 

There’s no way he could say no, even if he tried.

“I have to leave before six,” Jaehyun says to the man as they walk away from the building towards nothing in particular just yet. It’s his way of saying yes without actually saying it. He knows it will do the trick. Jaehyun takes a deep breath of the fresh air, again relishing in the scent of the rain mixed with that of the pond.

Johnny smiles to himself, happy that he gets to keep the other’s company, even for just a little while. He’s happy that the other man didn’t push him away for what would have been twice in one day… and most importantly, he’s happy that fate is saying he gets some sort of second chance. But, now it’s his turn to ask a question.  
“You have a date later?” 

Johnny knows it’s not really his business nor his place to be asking it, but it doesn’t make him any less curious as to why the man is setting a time limit. He doesn’t expect an actual answer from Mr. Dimples anyway, for if he’s learned anything about the other so far, it’s that he has more questions than answers he’s willing to give. So when the other answers with “Why should I tell you?”, he doesn’t miss a beat. Two can play at that game.

“What book was it? The one that cut your hand?”

Jaehyun stops walking, a little bit taken aback by the questions, the back of the other’s head in his line of vision. 

Johnny takes a few more steps forward past him before he realizes the other has stopped and stops too, turning around to look back at him. Of course, he already knows the answer to the question, but he has come to like seeing the other even the slightest bit flustered because of him. So he sends him a knowing smile, head flopping to the side. When the movement makes some of his bangs fall in his face, it has his left hand coming up to run through his hair a little bit in an attempt to fix it.

Jaehyun stares, once again. He watches the way the other fixes his hair, loving the motions. It takes his breath away. And then he brings his eyes back to the other’s, mind running over how he’s gonna answer. He thinks back again to the elevator.

“I told you I was curious,” he says, the corners of his lips turning upward as the other looks back at him.

“I know,” Johnny says softly back. 

They both take a moment to just look at each other, both attempting to read the other. They’ve been dancing around one another in the very little time they’ve known each other, and they both want to know more. However, only one of them is so willing and open, and the other is excited, but still somewhat frightened, a little scared, crossing into unknown territory; he doesn’t know if he’s gonna come out alive. What he needs to see is that the other is not the enemy, but rather the prize… only if he wants it bad enough.

“What’s your name?” Johnny asks first, but he can tell that the other man’s guard is still up. He has no clue what he's gonna get as an answer this time.

With the question, Jaehyun is again caught off guard as he’s just now realizing that they haven’t even exchanged names yet, eyes dropping to his feet.

And a moment later that same very nervous feeling from the elevator returns to him, but this time tenfold. If he chooses to share his name, even just his first name, he basically gives his whole identity up. Whatever he’s about to do with the other man, he’d rather not have it come back to him. Being exposed is Jaehyun’s greatest fear. So, he knows it’s better if the other doesn’t know his name, by Jaehyun’s own choice, one that he has to be confident in.

At the same time, it also makes him feel like a child again, being too shy to share his name when being introduced. So he goes with it.

“I’m just a boy.” He replies shyly, a little bashfully as he brings his eyes back up to the other’s; he means to be confident in it, but as soon as it leaves his mouth he knows it sounds silly. It has cheeks and ears heating up again, but he makes eye contact to stand by his choice in not sharing it.

“Cute.” Johnny finds himself letting out under his breath once again, but this time he’s not gonna correct himself, for he truly means it as he continues watching the way the other man is gets so shy right before his eyes. He doesn’t know where to look as the other’s cheeks and ears are both heating up. It’s so endearing, and as he said cute how expressive the other is to him, whether he knows it or not. 

And then there is also the other’s eyes, his eyes that convey the most; they stare back meaningfully at Johnny, and it’s how Johnny knows the other man is not going to reveal his name to him. Johnny is going to have to be okay with that if he wants to keep his company longer, so he accepts it.

“Yours?” Mr. Dimples asks back with a giggle, and Johnny should have known by now that of course there would be another question in his answer. It makes him genuinely smile, having already picked up on one of the other’s many cute quirks in such a short amount of time. 

“I’m just a man.”

The answer has Jaehyun laughing with his whole body, for the other seems to bounce off him flawlessly, no matter what Jaehyun throws at him. 

“That’s cheesy, but cute,” he says after his laughter settles down, thankful the man could be so accommodating. He has a feeling this guy is the super cheesy, romantic type, and he chooses to look forward to it since he’s never had the chance to be around another man like that. 

Johnny sends him a wink, to let him know there’s more where that came from. “C’mon,” he says, signaling with his head for the other to follow as he walks back towards the many shops further along. He doesn’t know what exactly they are gonna end up doing but Johnny finds it nice for once, to be spontaneous and not have things planned out, for everything he’s planned before has ultimately failed him.

Jaehyun watches and hears the other man gesture for him to follow, and he does so without hesitation. He finds his excitement return once again, with a bloom in his chest as he finally takes that step into the unknown.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed that first chapter, and that it whet your appetite for the much more that is to come! 
> 
> If you were able to figure out which movie this is based off of from just this first part, I do kindly ask that you do not to say or spoil it in the comments as this fic follows very closely in that movie's ending as well (not completely, but I don't want to give that away too much either if you have seen this movie).
> 
> Also, I encourage anybody who doesn't know what Chinese knotting is to look up some pictures for the sake of visualizing and understanding when reading the rest of this fic, as it's very important to the plot of the story.
> 
> The whole fic should be uploaded some time within the next month (most likely sooner); I encourage subscribing to be notified when it is! Until then, Kudos and Comments are truly appreciated! **✧･ﾟ｡༄**


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